There won't be a lot of blogging here today. Tonight, I'm taking the wonderful June Foray — the best damn voice actress in the history of cartoons! — to the 39th Annual Daytime Creative Arts & Entertainment Emmy Awards ceremony. This is one of two Daytime Emmy ceremonies and before you rush to set your TiVo, you should know it is not televised. The second one will be…on June 23 on HLN, which is the most basic of basic cable channels. They may or may not show excerpts of tonight's ceremony on that one, which will feature more of the performing awards. (They give so many of those statuettes out that they have to serialize their presentation.)
Most or all of the animation-related categories will be handed-out in the non-televised one tonight…which, by the way, is being hosted by Byron Allen. So the category in which she's nominated is tonight, plus they've asked her to present some of the other animation awards first. We have to be there early for a briefing/rehearsal for the presenters. I'm listed as one but actually June is the presenter and I'm escorting her onto the stage and off. I believe we're following Elmo.
We should make an interesting couple. I'm 6'3" and June is under 4'10". Speaking of puppets, when we get up there on stage, it's going to look like Ed Sullivan talking to Topo Gigio.
About the time we return to our seats, some actors from One Life to Live will be presenting her category and I sure hope there's a reason to escort her onto that stage again. But however it goes, I'm just plain thrilled she's finally, at age 94, received her first-ever Emmy nomination. In case you missed where I said it a few weeks ago here, I believe she's the oldest Emmy nominee ever, beating out the previous "oldest Emmy nominee" (Betty White) by five years.
Notice that I said "I believe she's the oldest." So far, the folks at the Academy don't seem to be totally certain…but I sure can't think of a performer who's got her beat. June, by the way, will be 95 in September. Somebody is going to have to start thinking about a helluva party.
I may be Tweeting from inside the event tonight. And then again, I may not. While I'm there, I'll decide based on decorum and signal strength…and signal strength will be by far the more important consideration. If you don't follow me on Twitter, follow me on Twitter. I'll try to post a full report here later tonight but it may have to wait 'til sometime tomorrow. Whenever I write it, I'll try to still be wearing my tux so it'll be a formal report.
Bruce Bartlett, who worked for Ronald Reagan, explains why his old boss would not be embraced by today's Republican Party…and might even be called a Dirty Socialist by some in it. Last year at a party, I got into a bit of unpleasantness with a Republican with Tea Party overtones who insisted that no, no matter what anyone says, Ronald Reagan did not (repeat: not) raise taxes. Apparently, all those press reports at the time were forged by the same guy who does Obama's birth certificates.
As Bartlett notes, Reagan also raised taxes when he was governor of California — an action he took almost immediately upon taking office. My recollection is that everyone — Democrats and Republicans alike — advised a smaller increase with the possibility of another one later if necessary. But Reagan figured that he could blame one tax increase on his predecessor and didn't want to chance having to raise them again later. He had this idea that the public counts tax increases, not their amounts.
Say Elected Official A pushes through a tax increase of 5% and later, because it proves to be needed, an additional hike of 3%. Then say Elected Official B just pushes through one 12% increase. In that situation, the claim would then be that B was the fiscal conservative because A raised taxes twice as often, never mind their size. Way too often, voters buy into that. When running in '88, the campaign of George Bush (the first one) gained a lot of yards by pushing the number, not the amount, of tax hikes when his opponent, Michael Dukakis, was governor of Massachusetts.
The amazing thing Reagan got away with regarding his California tax hike was that hindsight showed it was way too big; that the more modest recommended amounts had been correct. The state wound up with a huge budget surplus (remember budget surpluses?) which Reagan tried to credit to his prudent financial management. But any state can show a surplus if they raise taxes a lot higher than necessary…
I linked earlier to a gallery of animated GIFs. Here's a gallery of such graphics by Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg, who took the concept to a whole different level. Thanks to David Goodman for the link.
We have here a link to a live webcam trained on the crosswalk on Abbey Road in London where the famous Beatles cover photo was shot. If you watch for any length of time — especially when it's daylight there — you will see at least one person or group try to strike the pose of John, Paul, George or Ringo. I saw it happen about twenty seconds after I clicked over there. It was four people posing for a quick photo — and the guy in the Paul position even took off his shoes and socks.
Joe Brancatelli, my friend who knows more about airlines than Jerry Sandusky knows about tickling, says that flying "coach" is about to get even more uncomfy than it already is. If this trend keeps up, they'll just be stuffing us into prepaid mailers and FedExing us to our destinations, second day air.
Y'know, not that my voice has any particular volume, but I wouldn't mind if the seats didn't recline much. I rarely recline mine and whatever comfort it affords is more than negated by the guy in the seat ahead of me reclining his. But for those of us who are 6'3" (and at least one of us is), losing an inch of legroom is like losing your toes.
In fact — and some of you will emphatically disagree with this — I wish airlines would charge for carry-ons and make it free to check your luggage. Ever since most instituted fees for checked baggage, people are boarding planes (even on carriers that don't charge to check) with suitcases the size of the Louisiana Purchase. Some of them fight to get on the plane early because the overhead bins always fill to capacity and then there are always delays while flight attendants rearrange those bins so as to get one more bag in there, and then have to go check the ones for which there's no room. I'd be happier in my seat if there was room overhead to put my coat (instead of holding it on my lap) and my laptop (instead of having it under the seat ahead of me, thereby constricting my footroom).
But that'll never happen, charging for carry-ons and making checked baggage free. If anything, they'll start charging for carry-ons and start charging more for checked baggage.
Neil Gaiman writes about the occasional necessity to defend something we find tasteless and perhaps even worthless, in and of itself. I support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund not because it defends comics I do (so far, I don't think it's had to) and not because it defends comics I like (I'm sure there are some it has but I couldn't name one) but because it defends the right of creators to create and the right of sellers to make those creations available to those who wish to buy them. It's the principle that's worth fighting for, not every scrap of work that anyone writes or draws.
Julius Schwartz (L) and Ray Bradbury at Comic-Con the year before.
In case you're just joining us: Where ya been? You'll want to catch up by reading Part 1 and then Part 2 and if you get that far, you might as well read Part 3. We resume at the Ray Bradbury-Julius Schwartz panel at the 2002 Comic-Con International in San Diego, California…
So I'm on stage with Ray and Julie. Al Feldstein, who Julie did not want on stage, is in the third row. My job? Get him up there with us, at least for a few minutes so the audience can witness the first-ever meeting of Ray with Al, the man who so lovingly adapted his work for EC Comics. Here is how Al would describe in a later interview, that event and the circumstances that led up to it…
So I called my contact in San Diego and I said, you know I adapted these stories, we've never met and I'd be interested in speaking at the panel, and he said, "No, I don't think that Schwartz will allow that but I'll think about it," and I get a call back from Mark Evanier and he says, "I am hosting that panel," and he says, "Get into the audience and we'll see what we can do." (laughter) So I'm sitting in the audience and Bradbury comes hobbling up with a walker and oh God he's gotten so old, 'cause I remember when he was young, and Evanier steered the conversation into the comics and into EC's adaptations, and asked Bradbury, did he ever meet the guy who did them all, and of course Bradbury said no. And so he called me up and well, I was so touched that I cried, I really couldn't help it, tears came to my eyes. And we embraced, and he was very sweet…
When I started writing this account, I did not have a recording or transcript of the event and didn't know if one existed so I was going to paraphrase from memory. I still don't know about a recording but a friend of mine named James Van Hise wrote last night to say he had a typed transcript and that's the reason this last part wasn't up sooner. I was waiting to get that text from him, and now that I have it, what follows is not a paraphrase. Here I am, as Al would note, steering the conversation into comics…
ME: Ray, you were an attendee at one of the very first San Diego conventions, and at that point they had 300 or 400 people at the whole convention. Coming back here now, how do you feel seeing this convention all filled with science-fiction and comic book fans, people who are like your children; your offspring, inspired by your works?
RAY BRADBURY: It's wonderful, but I want to explain why I'm here to begin with. When I was nine years old, Buck Rogers came into the world. October, 1929. I was immediately in love with that comic strip and I started to collect it every day of my life for three months. I stopped collecting that because the kids in the fifth grade made fun of me. That was 1929, the beginning of the Depression. I listened to these kids and I tore up the comic strips. It's the worst thing I ever did because three days later I broke into tears and I said to myself, why I am crying? Who died? And the answer was me. I killed myself. I'd torn up the future. I listened to these stupid people. So I said, how do I cure this? I went back and collected Buck Rogers strips for the next seven years, every day, and never listened to one more stupid sonofabitch after that. And that's why I'm here. I collected Prince Valiant and all the various comic strips, and Tarzan drawn by Harold Foster in 1932. Incredible work. And when I published my first book in 1947, I sent a copy of the book to Harold Foster with a note saying, "You're one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, and I love your work and I love you." He sent me back two incredibly huge original Prince Valiant comic strips, which I still have at home. They're priceless! And I stayed in touch with Harold Foster to the end of his life twenty years ago. So you see, I'm a dedicated collector and I know what I'm looking at. And when I came to this group here, thirty odd years ago, I didn't realize it was going to grow so big. There were very few people here thirty years ago, and the exhibits were very poor. Very fragmentary. But now you've got this amazing display downstairs. I've been here two years, and I can't believe what's happened. So I'm very happy for all of us, and we're going to be here today, and we're all going to be crazy together.
ME: Now a lot of people probably first saw your work when they saw the EC Comics. I know you're told this story before, but I'd like to hear it again. How did they wind up adapting your stories into their science-fiction comics?
BRADBURY: They stole them. Like the Russians. The Russians steal everything. The Russians have been stealing my books for fifty years and I haven't gotten one ruble for it. They laugh about it. Well, the same thing happened with EC Comics. A friend of mine told me, "They're adapting your stories in the comic magazines but they're not giving you credit." And I didn't believe this person, but I finally looked up the magazines, and I was outraged. I said, "My God! This is incredible!" What am I going to do about it? Should I write them a nasty letter? And I said, no, what would Jesus do? Well, Jesus would have turned the other cheek. So I'll write a turn the other cheek letter to EC Comics and congratulate them on their brilliant adaptation, and their wonderful drawings, and what have you. And at the end of my letter I said, incidentally, you're very busy, but you forgot to send me an adaptation check. And the next week I received an adaptation check in the mail.
As Ray is telling this tale, I have a chilling thought. He is predictable by being predictable in his unpredictability. He is, after all, a man who likes to shock his readers a little, occasionally leading them this way and then shoving them that way. What if I move the discussion even closer to Al Feldstein and the following happens?
ME: So…what did you think of those adaptations that EC did of your stories? And did you ever meet the man who wrote and edited those comics, Al Feldstein?
RAY: Well, I used to say all the time that I liked them and I guess I did at one point. But over the last few years, I've had the occasion to read some of them again and I don't know what I was thinking. They crammed my stories into these little seven-page holes and left out the guts and…well, no. I never met this Al Feldstein but if I ever do, I'll probably punch his lights out or something.
Well, that would certainly make for a memorable panel. Fortunately, the above is not how it goes. How it really goes is like this…
ME: But you liked the job they did adapting them.
BRADBURY: There was some wonderful work. Krigstein did some great stuff. Elder. Williamson.
ME: The editor who adapted all these was a man named Al Feldstein, who adapted your stories and crammed them into these tiny spaces. How many times did you consult him or meet with him to do this?
BRADBURY: Never. After the first few adaptations I knew they weren't going to change the stories. They were going to use my words and they would be faithful. So I never met him.
ME: So you never met Al Feldstein?
BRADBURY: Never.
ME: I think it's about time that happened. Ladies and gentlemen, the genius behind EC Comics, Mr. Al Feldstein!
Al Feldstein sprints to the stage — and I mean sprints. The audience erupts in applause and excitement, and everyone in the hall is thrilled. Everyone, that is, but a man named Julius Schwartz who is staring stilettos at me. At that moment, he does not like me a whole lot. Al settles into the extra chair I had them put onstage…and of course I realize Julie is going to take the presence of that chair as prima facie evidence that this was not a spur-o'-the-moment summoning to the stage of Feldstein, who just "happens" to be in the third row. That will be the proof I planned the whole thing. Which, of course, I did.
But I'll worry about that later. Right now, Al Feldstein is about to speak…and you need to know this about Al: He is not the warmest, friendliest guy in the world. Or at least when he was editing MAD, he had something of the opposite rep. He was All Business, doing much of his work behind the only closed door in the office. Everywhere else in the place, doors were open, jokes were told and it was like an ongoing party that somehow managed to accidentally put out this silly magazine every six weeks. Feldstein didn't socialize much and he told interviewers he was a mercenary who just did what he did for the paycheck. I am thus a bit surprised but not at all displeased by what he says when he sits down next to me…
ME: Al, I hope you brought a check.
AL FELDSTEIN: I have to tell you a story. We didn't really adapt his stuff without paying him. At least I didn't know about it. You have to understand how we worked, Bill Gaines and I. Bill Gaines was taking Dexedrine pills to lose weight, only he used to take them at night before dinner, so he was up all night wired. And he used to read, and he'd read things, and we used to have story ideas four times a week, and he brought in some story ideas, and I said those two combined would be great, and that's the two stories into one that I wrote as an original story that he caught me with. And it was the start, I want to tell you Ray, of the most inspiring period of my life…
At about this point, Al begins crying. Actual tears.
AL FELDSTEIN: To have the privilege to take this guy's work, which was spectacular, and adapt it into the comic format, and try to be faithful to it, all of it, because every word is precious. It was a great pleasure and also a great tutorial for me as a writer. And I was really just a part-time writer. I wasn't really a professional writer. I was an artist, and you're an inspiration to me as an artist, because the way you wrote. You wrote like a painting. You took words that were colors and phrases that were brushstrokes, and you painted a visual picture that everyone in their own minds saw. The limitation to your stuff was that I'd give it to an artist and they would delineate the image that I think was a detriment, in a way, but it was the first virtual reality for comics. This guy was writing virtual reality!
By the time he's halfway through, Al isn't the only one on stage crying. Ray Bradbury is, as well. He can tell, and it's obvious to all, that Al is not a demonstrative man. This is not easy for him but it's something he feels he has to do. In later years as I get to know Al better, I will discover what a lovely, sensitive human being he is…and a contrast like that with his old reputation doesn't mean that the old rep was misreported.
Ray Bradbury (L) and Al Feldstein at a later meeting.
Some people get nicer as they get older, especially when they stop being The Boss. Julius Schwartz got nicer as he got older and a lot nicer once he was no longer the senior editor at his company…
Though as I'm sitting on that stage, I'm thinking he wants to strangle me for double-crossing him and bringing Al Feldstein into the Ray Bradbury/Julius Schwartz Panel over his objections. I'm thinking he'll never speak to me again…or worse, he'll speak to me constantly to tell me how I betrayed him.
But then again, maybe not…
Because as I look over at him, I see Julie remove his glasses to wipe his eyes. They're damp. So up there on that stage, we've got Al crying and Ray crying and now Julie's crying and I suddenly feel something moist on my cheek.
This could go on but I decide if we do, it'll be sheer anti-climax and it will indeed become the Bradbury/Feldstein Panel and Julie will indeed throttle me. So I wrap it up and Al and Ray hug and after Al exits, Ray whispers a pronounced "Thank you" in my direction and we start talking about him and Julie. The rest of the panel — Julie and Ray swapping anecdotes — is pure gold and I am so utterly unnecessary that I actually leave before it's over. The convention, forgetting that I can't be in two places at the same time, has me moderating another panel across the hall then and I regret not being able to hear Ray and Julie through to the end. On the other hand, I'm still not sure Julie doesn't want to slap me silly so perhaps an early exit is prudent. He will later say to me, "You shouldn't have done it. But I'm glad you did" and we will be even closer friends than before.
So will Al Feldstein and Ray Bradbury for the years Ray has left. They spend more time together at the con and subsequently there are other meetings, other chances to discuss their glorious remote collaborations as well as, I'm sure, other topics. These men were two heroes of mine and it's great that the two of them got together.
Any one of you could have and probably would have engineered that first meeting if you'd been the moderator of that panel. That's why I don't deserve any special credit and I didn't tell you this long story to try and get any. I told it because it's one of my favorite memories of Ray, of Julie, of Al (Al's still with us, happily) and of Comic-Con, and I often relive great moments by sharing them with others. That's kind of what great moments are there for.
Hard to believe but it's less than four weeks until this year's gala Comic-Con International in San Diego. Please do not write and ask me if I can get you into the convention because unlike the Obama administration, I hate disappointing people.
I will be running my usual roster of panels and events, and the whole schedule of programming will be up before long. (Hint: Quick Draw! and my two Cartoon Voice panels will be in the same time slots and rooms they were in last year…and our Guest Cartoonist this year for Quick Draw! will be this very funny guy.)
On Saturday afternoon of the con (that's July 14), I will be co-hosting a star-studded Ray Bradbury Tribute at 5 PM. If there's one event you won't want to miss at the convention, this is it. Watch this page for more details…but don't wait for the details. Plan on being there for this one.
I don't write much on my iPad but if I did, I don't think I'd try this app which forces a writer to keep writing or face severe consequences. For one thing, it confuses writing with typing. Typing is easy. Writing something you want the world to see with your name affixed…that's the occasional hurdle.
